The plane landed in Vancouver about an hour earlier than scheduled, which made me feel like I was part of a momentous achievement for Philippine Airlines: PR 106 has never been on time in the past! (At least that's what the flight trackers told me when I was preparing for the trip)

We arrived around noon, Vancouver time, and my connecting flight to Toronto was not until 5:30pm, so I had a lot of time to kill. What I really wanted to do was find a bed and sleep for hours. I felt like the floor was spinning under me, I was so exhausted from sitting in a plane for 13hours and my neck was sore. I had eaten a few hours before the plane landed, but hearing the local time made me think I should eat. I felt full but i had a bite anyway, and about 3 hours later I felt hungry again! I checked the time (my watch was still in Ph time) and it was the time I usually had breakfast! My stomach was confused, my eyes were closing on their own, and I felt light headed. Hmm, I thought, "I guess this is what jet lag feels like".. I had planned to read my numerous notes to while the time away, but my brain was protesting like crazy, so I just sat down for like two whole hours, just people-watching since I was too tired to look/walk around..and my heavy carry-on was making me feel really stupid.

I sat across a Hudson News in this quiet, comfy part of the airport just right outside the immigration dept. I got myself a 500ml bottle of Evian that cost what could have gotten me two liters outside any airport. This whole LAGS thing is feeling like a whole business scam...i kid, i kid!

The first thing I noticed was the whole aboriginal theme of the airport. When I was reading about Canada, I could not pinpoint a cultural idiosyncrasy. Sure, I knew about the maple leaf and the caribou and hockey and the whole predominantly-immigrant eklavu about Canada, but it was really looking to me, as I read, that Canada seemed like America's big little brother. So I was feeling a bit educated [lol], seeing all these aboriginal displays.

The next thing I noticed were the number of Filipinos working at the Vancouver airport. There are like a lot of them around, and I could hear Tagalog everywhere.